Scottish Football Research Articles

Board roles in Scottish football: an integrative stewardship-resource dependency theory

ABSTRACT Research question: This study investigates how boards of directors perceive their roles in Scottish football clubs. With previous studies focusing on amateur and non-profit sport organisations (primarily in Canada, Australia and New Zealand), this research answers the call for more research into board roles and in other sport contexts. Research methods: A qualitative design is adopted and 24 directors of Scottish football clubs are interviewed. Football club directors are a difficult to access population and this research represents a rare opportunity to understand the perspectives of key sport governance informants. Template analysis is employed. Results and findings: Findings show that perceived board roles fall into five categories: control, service, operations, resource co-optation and strategy. Organisational size was found to influence perceptions of board roles in Scottish clubs, while an apparent alignment of interests between owners and managers, and a subsequent reduction in agency cost, has implications for the control role. An integration of stewardship theory and resource-dependency theory is argued to provide a more holistic understanding of board roles in this context. Implications: The study responds to calls for a multi-theoretical approach to board roles research by developing an integrative stewardship-resource dependency theory. The integrated theory is argued to be useful in framing the complex dynamics of board roles in Scottish football. Future research is encouraged to assess whether the stewardship-resource dependency theory can provide an effective framework for understanding board roles in other sport settings.

Separation of sport and State: military salutations at US Major League Soccer events

A central tenet of the international sports movement is that sport should be unfettered by politics—in other words, there must be a separation of sport and State. This is regulated by many governing bodies, such as the IOC and FIFA, which prohibit almost all forms of political statements. Nonetheless, sports events can be powerful platforms and many actors have utilised them for political means. This article addresses the now-common phenomenon at US professional sport events of paying homage to the military. This assumes various forms, often consisting of announcers directing the audience to pay tribute to the US armed forces or veterans prior to or during a match. A 2015 enquiry by two US Congresspersons exposed that the US Government had paid over USD 10 million to US professional sports leagues for such tributes, without disclosing the paid nature thereof to sports events audiences, a practice termed ‘paid patriotism’. Focusing on Major League Soccer, one league whose teams were documented to have held paid military tributes, this article argues that, paid or unpaid, such military salutations are impermissible political statements and thus inconsistent with the applicable (FIFA) regulations. Parallels are drawn to the wearing of poppies and associated homages on Remembrance Day organised by the English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish Football Associations. As a result of the poppy controversy, IFAB modified the Laws of the Game leading up to the 2018 Russia World Cup to permit commemorations of a ‘significant national and international event’. Nevertheless, military salutations remain impermissible political statements within the modified rule.

Long-term weight loss following a randomised controlled trial of a weight management programme for men delivered through professional football clubs: the Football Fans in Training follow-up study

Background Rising levels of obesity require interventions that support people in long-term weight loss. The Football Fans in Training (FFIT) programme uses loyalty to football teams to engage men in weight loss. In 2011/12, a randomised controlled trial (RCT) found that the FFIT programme was effective in helping men lose weight up to 12 months. Objectives To investigate the long-term weight, and other physical, behavioural and psychological outcomes up to 3.5 years after the start of the RCT; the predictors, mediators and men’s qualitative experiences of long-term weight loss; cost-effectiveness; and the potential for long-term follow-up via men’s medical records. Design A mixed-methods, longitudinal cohort study. Setting Thirteen professional Scottish football clubs from the RCT and 16 additional Scottish football clubs that delivered the FFIT programme in 2015/16. Participants A total of 665 men who were aged 35–65 years at the RCT baseline measures and who consented to follow-up after the RCT (intervention group, n = 316; comparison group, n = 349), and 511 men who took part in the 2015/16 deliveries of the FFIT programme. Interventions None as part of this study. Main outcome measures Objectively measured weight change from the RCT baseline to 3.5 years. Results In total, 488 out of 665 men (73.4%) attended 3.5-year measurements. Participants in the FFIT follow-up intervention group sustained a mean weight loss from baseline of 2.90 kg [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.78 to 4.02 kg; p < 0.001], and 32.2% (75/233) weighed ≥ 5% less than at baseline. Participants in the FFIT follow-up comparison group (who participated in routine deliveries of the FFIT programme after the RCT) lost a mean of 2.71 kg (95% CI 1.65 to 3.77 kg; p < 0.001), and 31.8% (81/255) achieved ≥ 5% weight loss. Both groups showed long-term improvements in body mass index, waist circumference, percentage body fat, blood pressure, self-reported physical activity (PA) (including walking), the consumption of fatty and sugary foods, fruit and vegetables and alcohol, portion sizes, self-esteem, positive and negative affect, and physical and mental health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Mediators included self-reported PA (including walking) and sitting time, the consumption of fatty and sugary foods and fruit and vegetables, portion sizes, self-esteem, positive affect, physical HRQoL, self-monitoring of weight, autonomous regulation, internal locus of control, perceived competence, and relatedness to other FFIT programme participants and family members. In qualitative interviews, men described continuing to self-monitor weight and PA. Many felt that PA was important for weight control, and walking remained popular; most were still aware of portion sizes and tried to eat fewer snacks. The FFIT programme was associated with an incremental cost-effectiveness of £10,700–15,300 per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained at 3.5 years, and around £2000 per QALY gained in the lifetime analysis. Medical record linkage provided rich information about the clinical health outcomes of the FFIT RCT participants, and 90% of men (459/511) who took part in the 2015/16 FFIT programme gave permission for future linkage. Conclusions Participation in the FFIT programme under both research (during the FFIT RCT) and routine (after the FFIT RCT) delivery conditions led to significant long-term weight loss. Further research should investigate (1) how to design programmes to improve long-term weight loss maintenance, (2) longer-term follow-up of FFIT RCT participants and (3) very long-term follow-up via medical record linkage. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN32677491. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 6, No. 9. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. The Scottish Executive Health Department Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funded the feasibility pilot that preceded the FFIT RCT (CZG/2/504). The Medical Research Council (MRC) funded Kate Hunt and additional developmental research through the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit Gender and Health programme (5TK50/25605200-68094).

Learning to be a professional football manager: a Bourdieusian perspective

ABSTRACTThis paper draws on the theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu to provide an insight into aspirant football managers’ perceptions of what is required and valued at different stages of their desired managerial career journey. Drawing on interviews with candidates from one cohort of the Scottish Football Association Professional Licence (n = 19), our evidence suggests that aspirant managers have responded to changes in field logic by adopting strategies which place increased emphasis on cultural capital in the form of engagement with educational discourse. While we find evidence of instrumentality in attitudes to education, we also find evidence which emphasises the importance of habitus as an unconscious process. Educational culture is absorbed and embodied by some aspirant managers, which enlightens their actions and encourages them to adopt empowering strategies through which they seek to transform their place in the field. The paper concludes by considering potential implications for governing bodies and clubs.

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in Scottish Football: A Marxist Analysis

Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting in Scottish Football: A Marxist Analysis

Scottish Football and Colonial Zimbabwe: Sport, the Scottish Diaspora, and ‘White Africa’

In 1969 and 1970 respectively, Clyde and Kilmarnock Football Clubs embarked on highly controversial tours of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), then in conflict with the UK over its failure to enact a timetable for majority, non-white rule, and its 1965 unilateral declaration of independence to protect such a system. Despite defying the wishes of the UK Government, these tours were covered very little in Scottish newspapers, and there was little sustained public outcry. This article examines the uneven Scottish and Westminster reactions to the tours (in particular, Kilmarnock's) in the context of broader policies and movements against Rhodesian and South African sport. It also examines Rhodesian press accounts of the trips, which stressed communion with elements of the Scottish diaspora within Rhodesian civic society. It addresses the tours' place within the broader context of work, race and migration during the period 1965–80, when the Rhodesian Front government and its white settler supporters were under continual siege from a multi-pronged nationalist resistance. Critically, this article asks whether or not Scotland and indeed Scottish sport can be extricated from the horrors of decolonisation, in a region where both had deep historic roots.

Changing Boundaries and Evolving Organizational Forms in Football: Novelty and Variety Among Scottish Clubs

This paper presents a novel theoretical conceptualization of football clubs and empirical evidence as to how supporter groups, owners, and others engaged to resolve threats to their club. We use boundary theory to understand the evolution of two football clubs’ ownership, financing, and governance structures and demonstrate how the blurring of club boundaries was linked to engagements in interface areas between the club and other social groups. We argue that the appropriateness of different combinations of ownership, financing, and governance practices should be evaluated in terms of how they support effective engagement spaces that negotiate relationships with codependent social groups. Conceptualizing football clubs as boundary objects provides some specific insights into changes observed in Scottish football clubs. However, this approach is relevant to other situations in which club success is dependent on cooperative engagements with multiple social groups that have both convergent and divergent interests in the club.

More decision-aid technology in sport? An analysis of football supporters’ perceptions on goal-line technology

The introduction of decision-aid technology in sport, such as goal-line technology (GLT) in football, has generated minimal literature on supporters’ perspectives. This paper aims to investigate Scottish football supporters’ perceptions towards GLT. Two hundred and seventy Scottish supporters completed a questionnaire to assess their satisfaction with GLT and factors that influence their level of satisfaction. The majority of Scottish supporters trust the technology applied in football and favours its use. However, they are dissatisfied with GLT in part because GLT is considered to detract from the atmosphere resulting from contentious goals which supporters appreciate and lessen the debate around crucial decisions. Findings also showed that football supporters are against GLT viewing in the stadium and do not welcome future decision-aid technology in football.

A qualitative inquiry into supporter representation on Scottish football club boards

Recent political initiatives in the UK have sought to increase the role of supporters in the governance of football clubs. The Labour Party included in their 2015 general election manifesto proposals to give supporters a statutory right to representation on the board of directors of their club. In Scotland, amendments to the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act (2015) have provided Scottish Ministers with a framework to develop legislation relating to supporter involvement in governance. To date, however, there has been limited research on supporter representation, and the practicability of legislation giving fans the right to a seat in the boardroom has not been investigated. The purpose of this paper is to address that gap in the literature. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 directors of Scottish football clubs. Findings show that such legislation would be imprudent given the inherent difficulty of the role and the potential disruption to board dynamics.

‘To Cross the Skager Rack’. Discourses, images, and tourism in early ‘European’ football: Scotland, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Scandinavia, 1898–1914

This article examines the footballing relationship between the UK and Scandinavia during the period 1898–1914, specifically that between first-tier Scottish football clubs and the Danish Football Association (Dansk Boldspil Union, DBU) and the middle-class Copenhagen clubs which dominated it. The strictly amateur DBU and its city clubs invited British football clubs to Denmark on summer tours of the country to learn how to play the game; and, in turn, British clubs typically received a payment to come over. This article examines the common themes in both the Scottish and Danish press accounts of these tours, particularly the use of sketches, cartoons and other imagery. Then, the political context of British and Scandinavian football during the period is examined, including Scotland’s anomalous relationship with FIFA, the new governing body of world football. Finally, this article looks at the touristic accounts of Scots whilst in Denmark, ones which typically sought out the familiar.

Criminalizing songs and symbols in Scottish Football: how anti-sectarian legislation has created a new ‘sectarian’ divide in Scotland

Since the 1990s, the regulation of football fans has increasingly shifted from the policing of actions to the policing of words. With this in mind, this article looks at the impact of the anti-sectarian ‘industry’ in Scotland. In particular, it looks at the impact that legislation in Scotland, that criminalized football fans’ songs and chants, has had on Glasgow Celtic, and especially Glasgow Rangers, supporters. The article is based on participatory action research with football supporters in Glasgow who were opposing the Offensive Behaviour at Football Bill, in 2011. Through this work, two issues became necessary to address; firstly, the impact of the anti-sectarian ‘industry’ in Scotland, which has grown precisely at a time when sectarianism appears to be declining, and secondly, the emergence of a new tension, divide or form of intolerance, which is developing amongst fans (particularly Glasgow Rangers fans), that has been created by this anti-sectarian industry.

Playing By the Rules?: Early Modern Sport and Control in the Northern Mainland Royal Burghs of Scotland

ABSTRACTThe history of early modern sport in Scotland, especially in the Lowlands, is beginning to emerge. Impressive works have identified the key sports in Scottish history, including bowls, football, golf, horse racing and shinty, but more research is required to understand their place in society and how they were regulated. This paper focuses on the northern mainland royal burghs of Scotland and examines the roles of the crown, the Scottish Parliament, the burgh councils and the parochial kirk sessions in governing sport during the early modern period. It argues that sport in the north was controlled, from the authorities' perspective, to guarantee the training of useful members of society, to minimise disruptions to communities and to follow moral and religious expectations. They did so by applying both direct and indirect methods of social control. However, this element of social control was not universal, unremitting or entirely oppressive and the urban populace had agency and, at times, resisted the authorities' attempts to govern what, where and when sports were to be played. This paper is divided into four sections to illuminate: what sports were played; how they were governed at the national level; where they were played in the urban environment; and, finally, when they were deemed appropriate.

Power and logics in Scottish football: the financial collapse of Rangers FC

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the implications of power imbalance and over-emphasis on commercial logic on the structure and governance of Scottish football.Design/methodology/approach– An in-depth analysis of secondary sources is used to identify the logics at play in Scottish football and to explore implications of the liquidation of Rangers for the structure of the game.Findings– Over-emphasis on commercial logic has led to power being concentrated in two clubs, Celtic and Rangers, and to other clubs and the league itself becoming financially dependent on those clubs. The collapse of Rangers thus threatened the stability of other clubs and the league. The case highlights the challenge of reconciling competing logics and the role played by previously peripheral actors in bringing about change in the field.Research limitations/implications– The on-going nature of the case, related investigations and legal process meant that it was not possible to supplement the secondary source material with primary evidence.Practical implications– It demonstrates the multi-faceted nature of elite contemporary football and of the challenges faced by leagues and governing bodies in accommodating logics and multiple stakeholder interests. It also highlights the need for more effective financial regulation of corporate football clubs and their officials and emphasises the importance of inclusive stakeholder governance.Originality/value– It highlights the risks inherent in football business in small markets dominated by one or a few clubs. It highlights the role that previously peripheral actors can play in bringing about change within a field.

Scottish football before 1914: an economic analysis of a gate-money sport

On the basis of data collected at club level, it can be suggested that most Scottish elite football teams were not profit-maximizers. The lack of price competition, the existence of free entry for some spectators, the playing of uneconomic friendly and minor cup fixtures, the relative under-utilization of ground facilities, and the employment policies and wage structures of clubs point to utility taking precedence over profits. Even if the clubs had been profit-maximizers, this would have required collusion at the Scottish Football League (SFL) level in order to produce uncertainty of results at both match and championship level, but the members of the SFL seem to have been willing to tolerate a high degree of inequality in playing success.

Developing CSR in professional football clubs: drivers and phases

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of how corporate social responsibility (CSR) develops within professional football clubs, along with its organizational implications, phases, drivers and barriers for corporate governance, given that professional football organizations have become particularly strong socio-political business institutions, often home to numerous social and business relationships. Additionally it aims to consider CSR development generally drawing specifically on examples from Scottish professional football while answering two key research questions: what kind of drivers do clubs identify as reasons to develop CSR? and Can developmental phases be identified during this process?

Sectarianism, anti-sectarianism and Scottish football

In 2012, the Scottish Parliament voted through anti-vilification legislation known as the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act. Among those most prominent in opposing this have been supporters of Celtic Football Club. This paper looks at the history of the term ‘sectarianism’ as a means to understand the act and to consider some of the rationale behind Celtic supporters' resistance. It includes reflection on aspects of the social, cultural and religious context within and without football, which have contributed to the act's construction and opposition.

“Social physical exercise?” Football, industrial paternalism, and professionalism in west Dunbartonshire, Scotland, c. 1870–1900

This article examines the interrelationship of sport, community and industry in west Dunbartonshire during the period 1870–1900. During the early years of the Scottish Football Association (SFA)– the 1870s and 1880s – the county's main football clubs were amongst the SFA's most dominant, regularly challenging Glasgow's major clubs for supremacy in the Scottish Cup. These clubs were part of an industrial landscape, based as they were in shipbuilding and textile communities significantly comprised of Irish and Highland Scottish migrant populations. Local industrialists acted as patrons out of a paternalistic desire to mould the message of football. Their attempts were nevertheless undermined by the existence of professionalism in the game, which in turn encouraged an alternate method of social mobility.

William Stewart Hillis

Pioneer in sports science, and doctor to the Scottish football team Stewart Hillis had been actively involved in the preparation for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. He was diagnosed...

The Field of Play: Phases and Themes in the Historiography of Pre-1914 Scottish Football

This article follows up on Adrian Harvey's piece ‘The emergence of football in nineteenth-century England: the historiographic debate’ [International Journal of the History of Sport 30, no. 18 (2013): 2154–2163]. It reviews the historiography of Scottish football on the period before the First World War. There is considerable literature on the topic, but it is not by any means evenly distributed to cover Scotland's geography, nor does it give balanced coverage to a wide-enough variety of thematic subjects. The author places this historiography into six broad categories which reflect the audience, research interests and methodology of the pieces, and offers a critical assessment of work still to be done in what is a disparate field.

Program Linked to Professional Soccer Teams Helps Men Lose Weight

Men are poorly represented in commercial weight-loss programs and clinical trials of weight-loss interventions. Now, researchers report results of a study in which 747 overweight and obese men (age range, 35–65; body-mass index, ≥28 kg/m2) were recruited through Scottish professional football (soccer) league clubs to participate in a …